Weather is very cold but dry so looking forward to the racing.
Not a bad turnout considering many at at the EIR in Belgium this weekeng

Round 1

There was open practice for everyone and after more or less all had 3 or so long runs we were off.

As you can see Grant Williams was off to a good start and without repeating this over and over he is sort of good – LOL
He will like me saying this!!

I should of had 2nd but some silly error (random too) saw me being back to 3rd after Mark Sadler stole it from me 🙁

In 4wd Glen Westwood was on his way to round 1 TQ with his XB4

Round 2

Round came round quickly actually and i think the track was probably as good as it would be through the day. When Astro is wet it seems to be grippy before it gets dirty from the mud under it and then the grip seems to dissapear and it gets greasy as we call it

Time for a good run and i did just that with a 2nd in round and an improved time.

Grant had another 1st in round with Mark 3rd

I was happy with my car but as always wanted to go faster like any racer does

Another TQ in round for Glen in 4wd

Round 3

Round by round qualification it can be a pain sometimes as really you are not racing against the clock but your competitors. Of course we want to go fast but no good throwing a run away because we are trying too hard.

In this run i did just that.
Managed to get a 2nd in round but we a slower time.
Some of the lads said the track slowed up but i wasn’t too sure

Matt Benfield was now making his move in 4wd as he TQed the 3rd round with the fastest time of the day

I have to report this

LOL before I even start.
Yes when you look at the sheet you will see Grant ahead again from myself that actually did a slower run than the round 2 time.

BUT

And I know some of you will be surprised I switched to Big Bore shocks and I thought the car was for sure quicker.

The proof of course is always the clock and as you can see, although rare, i had the quickest lap….Yes you read it right

🙂

Round 4

Not sure why i took a photo of the heat rather than the overall so sorry for that.

I played a little with my set up as now i like the Big Bore baddies and as you can see still had the 2nd faster single lap.

Not mad for an old dog eh!!

Matt Benfield TQed the last round too of the 4wd cars and took TQ from Glen
That would be a B44 from a XB4 on the grid

Mark Sadler

Mark Sadler qualified 3rd

Mark has been around the sport for some 29-30 years (Yes he is old)
Still races hard but also seems to enjoy his sons racing as it develops too…..look out for Mason Sadler

Some of you may remember the famous Wasp Products
That was Marks dad – we all miss him

Catch up soon Mark 🙂

2WD Final

The final was great – well I enjoyed it anyways 🙂

We started off and i decide the only chance was to go for it.

Well go for it i did, got to the first corner and was full on the handbrake and threw my RB6 up the inside of Grants Cougar……all good for now till i realised that once the momentum was lost then the get up and go was all too difficult and as soon as I tried to power away i was doing donuts and dropping down to 4th.

Ah well I was trying – LOL – my car was good so nothing lost or gained at the first corner. 5 mins is a long time in RC….off we went again and managed to get to 3rd by Chris Brooke that was doing OK himself.

Up front Grant got it slightly wrong and Mark Sadler jumped to the lead.
It was a great battle thus far and this is all in the first 2 laps or so.
Grant was patient by the sound of the commentary by Steve and got out in front once again

I hunted down Mark and sat behind him for a while but had to make a move otherwise Grant would settle and be off in the distance like he can.

I got past Mark and set off to catch Grant but I just knew he had too much of a gap and this was going to be a fight for 2nd with Mark. Had a great battle for the remainder of the race and managed to hold him off to take the 2nd place.
Well done to Grant for his win and now he can go off to Canada for his hols all happy – 🙂

4wd Final

TQed man Matt Benfield lined up on the grid but no 2nd place man Glen Westwood. Not sure why but Glen that TQed the 1st and 2nd rounds wasn’t running

In 3rd and now 2nd but with a grid space clear was Kit Jones with his Schumacher K1 car
4th now 3rd was young Mason Sadler

The buzzer went and it was all very civilised among the front runners.
Matt Benfield slowly but surely was building a gap and was to go on and take the win.

Mason Sadler though was in a right ding dong battle with 6th on the grid Billy Fletcher.
A wonderful race between them that went all the way to the line. Mason got a great 2nd place with Billy just behind.

The club once more gave us all a very good event and I really enjoyed it

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Titchfield Car Club recently was successful in gaining a 2013 National event and will be holding the F2/Junior/Vets event at the back end of the season.

Work has already commenced in preparation for all the 2013 events and this week they were trying out another layout on their track

Weather is bad

The weather the evening beforehand was shocking….Rain rain and more rain
It sort of makes you think why hasn’t a club or even an individual opened an indoor permanent facility that just keeps us dry.

Woke up in the morning and it was dipping it down and now I had to make a decision.
Drive an hour in this relentless rain on a maybe or go back to bed and the warmth.
Knowing that the TORCH crew would do everything in their power to get the event running, and the car was already packed and ready, off I went. Worse way is say hello if it was all cancelled.

Practice

It was near dark when I got to trackside. To my surprise there were committee members already on the track hoovering the water way. Not much one can say to the devotion of the personnel of TORCH. Outstanding!

Around 8.15 ish it was announced that open practice would commence and i was ready. I was pitting under my usual gazebo with Scott Faulkner and Simon Fearn. Goods lad the pair of them and we had a laugh through the day 🙂
I was running yet another set up on my RB6 Kyosho as I get towards the fine tuning option of a base set up.
Car felt very good from word go and had 2 full practice sessions without any major changes

Round 1

OK….of we went and I settled very quickly into the run. Not trying any heroics at this stage proceeded to follow the local lads and ended up with a 2nd in round
Steve Brown TQed round one with a near perfect opening run

Round 2

In round 2 I was determined not to make that one error that pulled me back into the pack like I did in round 1.

Of we went and not starting behind Steve it theoretically should be an easier run following him round.

Its never that easy (LOL)
A good run but the wind got heavier and heavier and everyone was suffering over the jump section.
At one point i thought my car turned into a glider.

Got 3rd in round but could of been so much better.
Steve TQed once more with Mark Sadler in on the 2 spot

Round 3

Decided to make some minor changes to an already good set up.

Steve would lead the top heat out, followed by Mark Sadler and myself.
Steve was really driving very well indeed and he had his RB6 pretty much dialed to his liking.
An early mistake by Mark let me through and i set off to catch or to at least minimise the gap between Steve and I.
The weather certainly didn’t help matters at all.
The wind would just randomly take the flight of the cars at any given lap and we were all in the lap of the Gods when this happened.
On one lap in the run the car just sort of hanged in the air just waiting for someone to snap some pictures but only to land on the track marker and yet again ruin another fair and decent run

Same for everyone though so no complaints at all

Round 4

I don’t recall actually taking a snap shoot of the results in round 4 but after a small about of rain the track slowed up a little and there wasn’t any significant faster times than before

Chris Ellis

Chris Ellis one of the organisers of the Surrey and Hants club in Farnborough Hampshire making the main A Final with his Kyosho DB1.

Chris has been an ambassador for the sport for many many years and now enjoys his racing more than ever.

Chris and I go back over 20 years and it is very pleasing to see him getting good results

Well dome mate

The triple Jump at TORCH

A critical part of TORCH is their triple jump sequence. The wind today though was causing havoc

Final

The main A Final started with a few laughs on the rostrum as Jays car started to have a mind of its self and went off on its own. We all checked up and waited but all started laughing when Jay said it does it all the time – LOL

The buzzer went and we all started very clean. From 2nd on the grid i put some early pressure on Steve with lap 2 being my actual fastest lap of the final and the 3rd fastest of the main.
Steve kept cool as ever and went about his business.
Mark and Sam to be fair were not being dropped…far from it in fact.
Sam got by Mark for 3rd and when i made a small error he didn’t hesitate to go by into 2nd place.

Many places swapped between all of us all the way down the main final but Steve held off Sam to take the win.

I was possibly trying a little too hard and a few error really took me out of the equation for the win but finished 3rd at the end.

Conclusion is simple here.
Compliments to everyone at TORCH for yet another smoothly run meeting manner in horrible weather conditions

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Here I am at the first outdoor meeting of 2013 and at the Eden Park Raceway track.
A very different layout today and on face value before practice, it looks real good.

Practice

The club runs open practice so it was perfect for some very early testing.

Today i was testing various items and actually trying to run my RB6 as light as possible.
At home the car all up was actually under weight so some had to be added.
The track layout was actually easy but hard to go real fast.
My car felt a little on edge although the track was real slippery and everyone was on wet weather set ups

Round 1

There was something like 8 F1 drivers here today but they were slit between 2wd and 4wd. Not to mention other top drivers that did not compete in the National series last year to obtain a good licence grade.

I would like to say that my car was great but it really wasn’t.
This is the whole idea of testing of course.
The club was doing the same thing with their layout. Testing it before bigger events. Mmm!!
Anyways, i was circulating sort of OK until i spun in front of Grant and POW!, BANG!, don’t worry i just popped a ball joint when he drove into me. Before people misunderstand and get it all wrong like some have, it was my fault – LOL
I was going to pull over at that point as when you loose so much time for a marshal to pop your ball stud on (and he was quick too), it sort of feels like a waste of time. A lesson for you all here. Carry on and do your best and you will see today why!!

I ended up with a 4th in round. Grant was quickest with his Schumacher car

Round 2

As I mentioned earlier I was doing a lot of testing today.

I changed loads on my car and even added a brass bulkhead on (which I swore I would never do).
One has to test everything of course!!

I will keep this brief.
My bulk head dropped off – LOL

I have no idea what i did but clearly talking to people I fitted something wrong and it just fell off. I am still laughing about it now 🙂

I got a nothing for the round.

Round 3

Now i did say earlier carry on even if you think its not worth it. I hope you all took note because on this round the club decided to cut qualifying from 4 rounds down to 3 rounds. If I stopped in round 1, I would be deep in trouble right now but the 4th in round 1 would need to count.

Well as you can see from the overall results sheet of round 3, I managed a 2nd in round behind Grant that really was driving very well.

The changes where taking place now and although I wanted another round the finals where coming up next.
I was to line up 3rd behind Kit Jones that had 2nd in round 1 and 2 and he was driving well too.

The 2wd A final

Lets go racing!

We set off at the buzzer and i had an amazing start out of my Orion powered RB6. It just laughed off and overtook Kit for 2nd place. Right i thought, lets sit behind Grant and see what develops. Well what developed was the next corner was real slippery and I just got it all wrong. Kit didn’t really get it much better i think and nor did anyone else to be honest. After the 3rd corner mayhem, I really thought i would come out it it all in last place. No!!…. I was still 2nd although a little way back from Grant now. Try try as hard as one can, the time against Grant could not be made up. For those that don’t know Grant not so long ago was winning part of the National here at EPR. With Kit driving real hard to catch up from 3rd, I settled for 2nd and that’s how it finished

Conclusion

The club did a good job as they usually do at all their events.

Not sure why the meeting got cut down to 3 qualifiers though. I didn’t think that was very efficient which is very unusual for EPR. Maybe there was a problem we were not aware of. Thanks lads and catch up soon

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Hi yah all,
a very damp and wet morning here at Stotfold track. A venue voted for the 2013 National series so practice here very important in all conditions. After all we never know what the British weather will bring at any time of year.
A personal memorable day for me as the 16th of December some 22 years ago was the day my farther past away.
Miss you Dad even after all these years.

The rain has been coming down on the Stotfold area for some days now and the track really was not fit to race on.
Kev Lee, David Poulter keen as ever put the gazebos up and were keen to say the least.
The Stotfold members and committee personnel were on the track with hoovers, brooms and all sorts trying to get rid of the water.
After some time as if some miracle the lads sorted the track and open practice commenced. A really grand job and that is an understament.

Round 1

Kev Lee driving his RB6 Kyosho took round 1 running a prototype tray accommodating shorty Lipos so i suppose watch this space for the future. John Spencer last winter series winner at Stotfold, came in 2nd and then a close affair by everyone else. I came in 5th and was sort of happy with that especially as I have been testing various set ups too.

Round 2

The track getting washed off on the racing line i thought the grip was higher in round 2.
John Spencer steps up and takes round 2 from David Poulter that had a clean run.
Kev Lee came in 3rd with David Orbell in 4th. I tried hard but my changes were not good and i came in 7th in round.

Round 3

Well trying things over the winter certainly gives the right set ups for when the right time comes.
Nationals, regionals and of course all the other major events. I went back to my original testing set up with some minor changes.
I have to say that more or less all the drivers at the sharp end made errors and this is why I was extremely annoyed with myself. Knowing that i had a strong possibility to TQ the round i was just driving neat and tidy until i turn it into the pipe. Something that i did not do all day and the 6 sec error certainly cost me the TQ and down to 5th in round – I couldn’t find a punch bag anywhere! er!!! 🙁
Kev Lee took the round from David Poulter 2nd in round again…….

Round 4 and Overall Qualifying

OK round 4 is here and we need a result….lol
I must say I thought the track actually got a little slippery in this round but the car certainly felt good.
Kev Lee put the hammer down in the round and was pushing on very strong. David Poulter was again on for 2nd in the round and i knew I was there or there abouts as i was having a clean run.
I decided with a couple of laps to go not to bin it and bring it in for what it was and ended up 3rd in round behind Kev and David. Kyosho 1st 2nd and 3rd was sort of OK to me 🙂
Ended level on points with Kit Jones but Kit took forth with a faster run of less than a second.
Kev TQed from John and David

4wd Racing

On the same day there was some very quick driving in the 4wd event with Ellis Stafford being the class of the field. Trish Neil driving his K1 was also driving well and was 2nd on the grid
I must say the 4wd cars certainly looked a lot easier to drive in the slippery conditions

Kev Lee and his RB6

As you can see here, Kev was testing the shorty Orion Lipo with a prototype shorty holder allowing weight and ballast movement around the car. This is something the Kyosho Team are currently testing

2wd Final

The track was certainly now greasy. None of the front runners run new tyres and therefore the conditions were lets just say, tricky. Off we went and I really thought my changes to my RB6 and the last minute switch to small bore shocks were generating real good grip.
As many know now we have been testing bid bores to small bores often and the often change is giving us valuable information in what works best at what time.
I quickly overtook Kit that just got his car out of shape when trying to lay the power down. I got up to David and as he was also fighting for traction I blasted by and had mad visions is setting off after John and Kev. I could see Kev had a good lead and John really wasn’t too many corners ahead. I really didn’t have the speed to go that much quicker so I had to sort of settle and hope for mistakes from the 2 lads ahead. The mistake came and of course not knowing who or what in front I just knew I had to keep it on its wheels for the possibility. Kev and John went over the line together and looking at the final results sheet, John took it from Kev by 0.22 of a sec with myself 5.5 sec behind.

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04.12.12
Well we certainly know the winter is here.
The last few weeks have been getting colder and colder.
Ahead of this Saturdays Silverstones Winter series i thought I would get some track time in, especially as i an trying an all new layout in my RB6

Round 1

As you can see the new layout was working all OK but age must be setting in. Just too many errors – LOL. Looking forward to the rest of the evening….competition is certainly hot

Round 2

Well round 2 came and really i wanted to run the car the same again to make sure it was doing what i wanted. No problems, the car performing, the fingers not though 🙂

Round 3

Round 3 starts off and Tom Cockerill is on for TQ.
Paul Upton announces that i was less than a second behind. Now that would be good i thought!
We continue in the same vain and probably 2 minutes in till the thumbs didn’t do what the brain was telling them.
I suppose telling them to go round corners at some sort of flash speed was just too much. Error after error but very easily done indoors on a high grip track.
We will have to settle in just making main A and go from there

Paul Upton

Here is Paul, doing his usual booking in tasks for Silverstone Buggy Club.
Paul has also recently started doing some nice shell painting.
Check it out when you get a chance – Puppy Paint 🙂

Final Result

The A final was actually a bit of a shambles for me – not sure what was going on at the sharper end of it all but I didn’t have a great time.
One thing that was very noticeable though was David Burton lap times.
Check out the top ten on the image
Dave pulls out 3 super laps so no doubt his drive home was very satisfying 🙂

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Welcome to another wet day on the Off-Road racing scene.
I am at round 2 of the winter series at TORCH. (Titchfield Off Road Club Hampshire)

TORCH Track

Practice

Well certainly it has been a wet evening and the track is very moist to say the least.
I have made some major changes to the Kyosho RB6 and I was more than keen to get on the track to try all the ideas out.
Today I am running the WTS Orion stick packs in the RB6.
These Lipos weight distribution as needed

Round 1

I was very annoyed with myself in round one as in practice it was very obvious the RB was one of the top 2 cars.
I started off nice and easy and just got the jump section all wrong which cost be the qualifying round at the end…..some very quick lads in the heat and certainly in the heat prior too so really had to tidy things up a little…..

Round 2

After some really silly errors in round 1, and showing lap times that were promising, I wanted to keep on trying the different set ups I had planned for the day. The usual suspects were there or there abouts …..

Movember at a new level

As many of you know i am doing the Movember mustache growing and we have all had some laughs with the supr Mario theme and all that…..Darren Parker though has gone to an all new level as you can see here…..good on you fella…..

The weather then sets in and the expected rain comes down.
Steve Brown, Race Director and Mike Scott a backbone of TORCH decide qualifying is over after 3 rounds and we move into finals as the weather forecast was always coming and we all knew it.
Some racers complained about the decision which I actually found surprising.
Steve wanting to please everyone, which can never be done, calls for the racers to vote whether to have another round in the wet conditions.

I would not be true to myself if i didn’t post how I feel. In feel this was the wrong decision on his part. A club in my opinion must and should make decisions which are in the best interest of the racing. A committee and personnel are there for that very thing, to make decisions. If we were to vote on everything then nothing would be achieved. What I also don’t agree with, is racers arguing with club organisers on their decisions. I personally think its disrespectful to any club or organisation to disagree with their decisions but there you have it. All about opinions i suppose.

The racers voted to carry on with another round and then the finals…..I along with many others decided to call it a day as the increasing puddles on the track only spelt likelihood failures of electrics……
As a sponsored driver if I chose to carry on, I leave myself open for many bad comments about not caring for the equipment or the cost of it ….. I just didn’t feel there was any benefit for the continuation of more rounds especially with a risk of equipment going wrong…..

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Here we are at Stotfold.
The track is actually frozen but we hardcore racers actually and here to race.

NEW astro down and the track feels so different. Still very slippery in places and care and caution will have to be taken today to actually qualify well. I just hope it warms up a little

Round 1

Well round 1 was a very slippery affair. John Spencer was driving very well and took TQ from Kev Lee. I was wondering how they could be that quick but i managed 4th so i knew i had some work to do

Round 2

Round 2 was better after a couple of changes. Took all tiings off the R10 speedo and no turbo either. Smoothed the car right out and managed to get 27s lap times which was on the pace. John Spencer was still flying though

Round 3

In this round i thought I would push on and stop driving like Miss Daisy …. wrong move…got some fast lap times but too many errors….back to Miss Daisy for round 4. John Spencer repeated the first 2 rounds to take overall TQ although Kev binned it and gifted it to John

Round4

Some more set up changes to the RB6 and slowing dialling her in. Probably too much power in the car and should of switched to a 8.5 Orion but just didn’t have time.

Tom Cockrill

Now this bloke has a bunch of stuff to answer to….not only I got back to my laptop to find Super Mario ALL over as a screen saver but when i go into the FaceBook page …..well it was everywhere….God save you Tom – LOL 🙂

A Final 2wd

Well off we went and straight away everyone was making comments of lack of grip….to be fair my RB6 felt fine, yes it was a little more slippery but nothing like the beginning of the day before the sun came up.
i stayed with the leading pack for some laps after getting in to fourth.
John was stretching away and was driving very very well. Kev Lee was 2nd and Kit Jones sitting just in front of me.
No matter what I did i just couldn’t close the gap.
That was the finishing order.

John Spencer

John Spencer was on fire at the weekend.
He drove well in quali and in the final……deserved win for the big man. Well done pal 🙂

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Hi all, sorry I haven’t updated as much these past few days. I have been under the weather and have been feeling a little weak.
Maybe it was all to do with my sponsors posting the following picture……that just made me ill 🙂

The first round was very fast and furious and many of the top drivers made the odd error that really hurt their first round qualifiaction
It was Tom Yardy that pitched it from Darren Bloomfield

Round 2

Round 2 many drivers got their act together and we were seeing everyone getting the grips with the track as well as the tyres.
Tom Yardy was stepping up the pace and on course for another TQ in round.
Richard Barton suprised a few people and went 2nd with Darren Bloomfield 3rd
I was sort of getting my act together and has a 9th in round after my first round 13th

Round 3

Well Tom Yardy knew a TQ in this round would give him the overall pole and that is just was he achieved.
David Poulter found some great pace and put his Orion powered Durango 2nd in round and yet again Darren Bloomfield in 3rd.
Some other interesting movers were David Burton (designer of the DB1) was securing his A final slot.
Karl Jackson also secured A Final as well as Kev Lee with his RB6

Round 4 and A - B - C Finals

Well this is the make or break round and boy oh boy was it fast and furious.
Darren Bloomfield made his mark in this round with a TQ so puts his Orion powered Losi 2nd on the grid behind Tom Yardy and his Associated C4.1
David poulter has another great run and goes 2nd in round and 3rd on the grid with his Orion powered Durango
Steve Brown has a good run and he secured his A final position with his Orion powered DB1 Kyosho
Charlie Ware had a 4th in round and put his Associated C4.1 in the last spot in the main A final

Matt Owen

Matt Owen is at the head of Silverstone Buggy Club and has massive enthusiasm for the club to succeed.
Maybe not enough people say thank for to the organisers so , thanks for another great meeting Matt

Stuart Whyman

Stuart is the Head Timekeeper for the British Radio Car Association and looks after all our National events and a lot more.
Whenever he is at the computer you just know the meeting is going to run smoothly.
Today was no different, thanks Stu

Finals

Well all the finals were great to watch and certainly some great close racing.
The C Final won by Paul Timberlake was a very close battle.
The B Final was gifted to John Spencer by myself with the help of Scott Faulkner (I know these two are laughing right now)
The Main A Final saw 4 cars fighting to the end and with Tom, Darren, David and Kev really throwing it at the track…..at the half stage one felt anyone of them could win. Congrats to Tom Yardy for another great drive and a cool head for the win